Re: NHL (Blackhawks included) offseason thread

[brinoch]

So what kind of (regular) season can we realistically expect? Bottom half of the West?

 

Should I invest in the NHL package? I want to watch a lot of games next year.

 

I fully believe and expect the Hawks to contend for the Central Division title.

[SpongeWorthy]

When I said bottom half of the West I meant a 5-8 seed.

[UMFan83]

So what kind of (regular) season can we realistically expect? Bottom half of the West?

 

Should I invest in the NHL package? I want to watch a lot of games next year.

 

No....not likely bottom of the West unless there are a lot of injuries or the West gets all bunched up and separated by a few points and the Hawks are on the short end of that.

 

This team is still bringing back pretty much their top 2 offensive and defensive lines. The depth will keep us from contending for the top seed, but the top end talent should keep us in the Central Division hunt and a top 4 seed.

 

Don't forget, between Toews, Keith, Kane and Hossa, you are looking at probably 4 of the top 25 players in hockey (feel free to argue, I didnt put much thought to it). Not many teams can match that type of front end talent (Washington, Detroit, San Jose are the only 3 I can think of, Pittsburgh is borderline in terms of having 3-4 of the top 30)

[SpongeWorthy]

I'm seeing elsewhere people suggesting that the Hawks are flirting with not making the playoffs. Is that way off (barring an act of god)?

[Magnetic Curses]

I'm seeing elsewhere people suggesting that the Hawks are flirting with not making the playoffs. Is that way off (barring an act of god)?

 

none of the players they lost were in themselves vital, but they all filled roles that made our depth outstanding. i don't think we'll come close to missing the playoffs and am actually looking forward to seeing what some of the rockford guys can do. and people are very high on kruger, stalberg, lalonde, and morin. mathis olimb is also very intriguing. i'm excited to see these guys get a chance and think they'll perform reasonably well. also, brouwer's ready to explode, which i don't think is necessarily a great thing long-term for our prospects of keeping him, but i think we'll be fine next year.

[NewUserName]

I'm seeing elsewhere people suggesting that the Hawks are flirting with not making the playoffs. Is that way off (barring an act of god)?

 

They will score 100+ points, unless they have serious injury problems

[Soul]

I fully expect the Hawks to make the playoffs, easily. Fans of other teams are hoping we don't, but that doesn't make it so.

[Butterscup1679666578]

They'll repeat as champs.

[kujay]

This is a playoff team and probably a division-winning team. Of course Detroit will continue to be very solid, but do you really think that as of today, Columbus, Nashville or St. Louis is even in the same ballpark with the Hawks?

 

They're not, and it's not close.

[Magnetic Curses]

i don't understand why, if the reports are true, the hawks are looking to ship campbell. why would they do that now when they should have done that before getting rid of steeger and ladd?

[kujay]

i don't understand why, if the reports are true, the hawks are looking to ship campbell. why would they do that now when they should have done that before getting rid of steeger and ladd?

 

Are there current reports that Campbell is being shopped? I just made that comment yesterday that he was still the cause of the problems (aside from Huet), but I haven't seen anything to suggest he might go. What I've seen from the disreputable rumor sites is Sharp going, if anyone.

[sneakypower]

my guess would be that they have always realized what a huge hindrance his salary will continue to be when they Seabrook, Brouwer, etc. start getting raises too, but that now he could probably be somewhat adequately replaced in-house by a very similar player in Vishnevskiy

[jersey cubs fan]

i don't understand why, if the reports are true, the hawks are looking to ship campbell. why would they do that now when they should have done that before getting rid of steeger and ladd?

 

Are there current reports that Campbell is being shopped? I just made that comment yesterday that he was still the cause of the problems (aside from Huet), but I haven't seen anything to suggest he might go. What I've seen from the disreputable rumor sites is Sharp going, if anyone.

 

While GM Stan Bowman said on Monday he hoped to sign restricted free-agent goalie Antti Niemi and that he was still trying to work things out cap-wise, crunch the numbers and it sure looks as if the Hawks must move out another key player with a substantial cap hit.

 

It might be Patrick Sharp.

 

It might be Brian Campbell.

 

It might be Niemi.

 

Whether he is actually being shopped is questionable. However, we also don't know they haven't tried yet. And we don't know if there was any change in interest pre and post free agency. Those guys were dealt then because timing was important. Campbell is a tougher nut to crack.

[Drew Doughty]

i saw lots of people reporting it yesterday, but it's a pretty tough sell.

 

olimb hurt his shoulder in a fight with kyle beach at the development camp yesterday. he's out for 4 months.

 

my expectation is for the hawks to fight with the red wings for the central division title. they would probably be between 4 and 6 if they failed to win it, barring something unforeseen. i still have lots of trouble seeing them miss the playoffs, though.

[UMFan83]

Wait, is sulley saying that the Hawks would flirt with missing the playoffs, and NewUserName is saying that the Hawks will probably finish with over 100 points?

 

Line 1: Brouwer - Toews - Kaner

Line 2: Kopecky- Sharpie - Hossa

 

DLine 1: Keith - Seabs

DLine 2: Hjalmarsson - Campbell

 

Those are still 2 extremely solid lines. And you have Bolland leading the 3rd offensive line.

 

You figure those 1st two lines probably spend 2/3rds of the game on the ice, so the bottom 2 lines spend 1/3rd. Big chunk of time but I'm not exactly depressed with the names that are on there. Might be some growing pains, but I think by the middle of the year, we will have developed a competent 3rd line that will at least be on par with a large part of the league, especially with Bolland leading it. And the 4th line is generally considered the checking line and is mostly out there to keep the score where it's at while the first 2 lines rest. The fact that we could score on our 4th line last year was considered a huge bonus.

 

Remember last year, the very good and supposedly deep Sharks were being praised during the playoffs for having Pavelski make their 2nd line dangerous to take the scoring load off the first line. They rely so much on their top 3 to score. The Hawks didn't. I just ran the numbers...last season the Sharks relied on their top 3 to score 40% of the team's goals and 34% of their assists. This includes all 4 lines, their defensemen, etc. The Hawks relied on their top line for only 29% of their goals and 26% of their assists. Now part of this is negative because we lost a lot of that scoring depth that made us not have to rely on only our top line. But we still have a 2nd line that includes Sharp and Hossa, with Hossa being one of the best players in hockey.

 

I'm rambling a bit but I think we'll be fine. We won't be as great. There will be days where we'll be exhausted as a team, and won't get much from our 1st line where last year we'd benefit from getting a couple goals from our 3rd and 4th lines where this year we might not as much. But overall the top end talent is there, and you should even expect Kane and Toews to get better than last year, seeing as its only their 4th full seasons in the league.

[UMFan83]

i saw lots of people reporting it yesterday, but it's a pretty tough sell.

 

olimb hurt his shoulder in a fight with kyle beach at the development camp yesterday. he's out for 4 months.

 

my expectation is for the hawks to fight with the red wings for the central division title. they would probably be between 4 and 6 if they failed to win it, barring something unforeseen. i still have lots of trouble seeing them miss the playoffs, though.

 

I'd be very satisfied making the playoffs between a 4 and 6 seed and bowing out in the 2nd round to most likely the 1 seed. I really hope that 1 seed isn't Vancouver or Detroit though. I can live with losing to San Jose.

[jersey cubs fan]

It's important to remember that Hossa and Bolland, two really important pieces of this team, missed large chunks of the season last year, and didn't come back healthy when they returned. Those two can pick up a significant amount of regular season production lost from others.

[Magnetic Curses]

Wait, is sulley saying that the Hawks would flirt with missing the playoffs, and NewUserName is saying that the Hawks will probably finish with over 100 points?

 

i don't think we'll come close to missing the playoffs and am actually looking forward to seeing what some of the rockford guys can do. and people are very high on kruger, stalberg, lalonde, and morin. mathis olimb is also very intriguing.

[Magnetic Curses]

i saw lots of people reporting it yesterday, but it's a pretty tough sell.

 

olimb hurt his shoulder in a fight with kyle beach at the development camp yesterday. he's out for 4 months.

 

my expectation is for the hawks to fight with the red wings for the central division title. they would probably be between 4 and 6 if they failed to win it, barring something unforeseen. i still have lots of trouble seeing them miss the playoffs, though.

 

beach, you piece of [expletive].

[Magnetic Curses]

i read an article today that said the hawks will try to come closer to 58 than 59.4, as most teams do, because of the threat and surety of injuries over the course of a season. however, it is my understanding that there are injury exemptions given for certain periods of time. does anyone know more about these? the hawks CANNOT be at 58 million, they have to stretch it all the way out.

 

as for speculation that sharp would be moved, i think he would have been moved by now if he were to be moved at all. he easily has the most value of anyone who has been shipped out thus far. and if he is traded, we would need a VERY high draft pick, like a top 5, and an above average, ready-made player to go with it.

 

there's a reason sharp is still a hawk, the entire second line hinges on him. if he goes, it falls apart. trade him and we might as well start trading toews, kane, keith, and seabrook and start all over because we might NOT make the playoffs without the leader of the second line.

[kujay]

I forget where I read it today, but I saw somewhere that Beach is unlikely to crack the Hawks' roster this year because his cap hit would be around $1M. So, yeah, thanks [expletive].

[jersey cubs fan]

there's a reason sharp is still a hawk, the entire second line hinges on him. if he goes, it falls apart. trade him and we might as well start trading toews, kane, keith, and seabrook and start all over because we might NOT make the playoffs without the leader of the second line.

 

That's fairly ridiculous.

[Magnetic Curses]

why

[Magnetic Curses]

I forget where I read it today, but I saw somewhere that Beach is unlikely to crack the Hawks' roster this year because his cap hit would be around $1M. So, yeah, thanks [expletive].

 

it's more than reasonable to fit beach under the cap. however, they would have to trade reasoner, which i don't understand why they haven't yet. we don't necessarily need some old, stalwart defensive center on the 4th line. it can be a young, offensive-minded center as well.

[jersey cubs fan]

why

 

Why is it ridiculous to suggest that Sharp is the one guy who cannot be traded, and if he is traded they should just go ahead and trade the core of the team because all is lost? You really need me to answer why to that question?